For a couple dozen centuries, a debate raged between the great philosophers among our cultural ancestors. They argued about how the body works and divided themselves into the physiologists' camp and the anatomists' camp. During the Age of Enlightenment, one side began to pull ahead of the other and anatomists now vastly dominate the health care system. In fact, all civilized people today are raised as anatomists. It's a critical component of the cultural mythology of global civilization.

But the anatomists - as vast as a surgeon's knowledge may be - only have a small piece of the story about how our bodies work and what makes things go not so well.

Every mind-body disease begins the same way: with an unanticipated experience for which we have no practical preparation leading to a biological conflict mediated by the brain. Different functions of the heart are directed by different parts of the brain, and are called into the special biological response process according to different kinds of unanticipated experiences. The key to the experience that you've had lies in the symptoms. The key to healing lies in looking at the experience that you've had.

What causes disease in the human (or other mammal) mind or body? One thing you can count on is that the cause is exquisitely complex. You've got to see the emergent properties; you've got to look at the big picture and see correlations and trends if you want to even begin to understand the cause of disease.

Our culture teaches us to see reality in terms of how to make the most money for the boss man. Over the last few centuries, lack of understanding of the forces of Nature, combined with the profit motive, has given us a medical paradigm that makes us put our health into the hands of the experts in the white coats and to live (and die) with some level of fear. This whole thing is based on the notion that disease is caused by the attack upon the body and mind by evil spirits. Yes, folks, you've been taught that you are possessed by the Devil... and the solution is to live your life the right way and buy the right products.

The truth is a lot more complicated - and a lot more benevolent - than that.

Every mind-body disease begins the same way: with an unanticipated experience for which we have no practical preparation leading to a biological conflict mediated by the brain. Different functions of the skin are directed by different parts of the brain, and are called into the special biological response process according to different kinds of unanticipated experiences. The key to the experience that you've had lies in the symptoms. The key to healing lies in the experience that you've had.

Every mind-body disease begins the same way: with an unanticipated experience for which we have no practical preparation leading to a biological conflict mediated by the brain. Different functions of the body are directed by different parts of the brain, and are called into the special biological response process according to different kinds of unanticipated experiences. Every AIDS symptom occurs by this rule. The key to the experience that you've had lies in the symptoms. The key to healing lies in the experience that you've had.

Every mind-body disease begins the same way: with an unanticipated experience for which we have no practical preparation leading to a biological conflict mediated by the brain. Your respiratory system comprises functions, organs and tissues directed from very different parts of your brain for very different purposes. The key to the experience that you've had lies in the symptoms. The key to healing lies in the experience that you've had.

Here is a very general overview of the causes and disease process for major respiratory complaints.

Different parts of the brain are called into the special biological response to deal with different kinds of unanticipated experiences. The key to the experience that you've had lies in the symptoms. The key to healing lies in the experience that you've had. Any kind of swelling in the body is always a result of a healing phase of an unanticipated experience or injury. Whichever area of the brain that directs that part of the body will also swell during the healing phase of the disease process.

There are spaces inside the brain, filled with cerebrospinal fluid. These ventricle spaces connect with the centre of the spinal cord and with the membranes covering the brain, so that cerebrospinal fluid can circulate around and through the brain and down the spine.  Any swelling of brain tissues in the vicinity of the ventricles can block the circulation of fluid and result in increased pressure inside the skull (called "hydrocephalus," literally "water-brain") which will cause specific symptoms.

The fluid isn't "cancerous" or toxic in any way. It's mainly water with a little protein, glucose, some white blood cells and some hormones; however, the consequences of the swelling are important, symptoms similar to meningitis – headaches, sickness, problems with sight and movement.

We live in a culture that believes that bad things are caused by evil spirits. Our medical doctors, in particular, believe this. They just use different words, such as "malignancy," "genetic predisposition," "toxin," and "viruses."

However, this belief system came about through a combination of ignorance and the profit motive - and certainly not through the process of scientific analysis. After all, science is a process of determining what is... not a process of marketing and propaganda. The truth - obvious to the open-minded, and also revealed by scientific process - is that our minds and bodies are not mechanical blobs to which bad things happen. We are each part of an exquisitely-complex energy system called "the natural world" which operates through a series of natural (and therefore unbreakable) laws.